The T-shirt is a faded lavender, well worn and three decades old. The word “Florida,” in tiny and off-white script, is nearly unreadable. Still bold is the black stenciling. “Free Karl,” it demands, and this is why the garment has survived its original owner’s changes in size, address and attitude.
The T-shirt is one artifact in “Resistance or Terrorism? The 1970 Sterling Hall Bombing,” a case exhibition that opens today at the Wisconsin Historical Museum, 30 N. Carroll St. The opening coincides with the 35th anniversary of the Sterling Hall bombing by anti-war activists.